qiao, j. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

Direct purification of CRISPR/Cas ribonucleoprotein from E. coli in a single step

CRISPR/Cas ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes have been recently used as promising biological tools with plenty of applications, however, there are by far no efficient methods to prepare them at large scale and low cost. Here, we present a simple method to directly produce and purify Cas RNP, including the widely used Cas9 and Cas12a nuclease, from E.coli in a single step using an ultra-high-affinity CL7/Im7 purification system. The prepared Cas RNP shows high stability, solid nuclease activity in vitro, and profound genome editing efficiency in vivo. Our method is convenient, cost-effective, and applicable to prepare other CRISPR associated nucleases.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Direct preparation of Cas9 ribonucleoprotein from E. coli for PCR-free seamless DNA assembly

CRISPR-Cas9 is a versatile and powerful genome engineering tool. Recently, Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes have been used as promising biological tools with plenty of in vivo and in vitro applications, but there are by far no efficient methods to produce Cas9 RNP at large scale and low cost. Here, we describe a simple and effective approach for direct preparation of Cas9 RNP from E. coli by co-expressing Cas9 and target specific single guided RNAs. The purified RNP showed in vivo genome editing ability, as well as in vitro endonuclease activity that combines with an unexpected superior stability to enable routine uses in molecular cloning instead of restriction enzymes. We further develop a RNP-based PCR-free method termed Cas-Brick in a one-step or cyclic way for seamless assembly of multiple DNA fragments with high fidelity up to 99%. Altogether, our findings provide a general strategy to prepare Cas9 RNP and supply a convenient and cost-effective DNA assembly method as an invaluable addition to synthetic biological toolboxes.

synthetic biology↗